Thomas and Friends Lineside tales
by Derailed
Summary: Spills, thrills, escapades, jokes and events that have happened to the engines in the real world. The engines want to tell you the tales that they have
1. Gordon and the Engineers

Gordon and the Engineers

(Rewrite of Season 11, episode 6)

The Island of Sodor is covered by railway lines. With the railway lines, there are points and signals, which have to be kept in full working order. If one part of the machinery breaks down, then there are men sent out to mend it to keep the railway running efficiently.

One cold morning, the shed master came to see Gordon, at Barrow Sheds, who was being readied for the first stopping passenger train of the day.

"There's been a points at Knapford Junction. It's delaying traffic and the Fat Controller wants you to collect some engineers to fix the points," he said.

"Right away," said Gordon.

Once he was steamed up, Gordon made his way over to his coaches, where the stationmaster told him that the engineers were waiting at Maron Station with their tools in box vans, and that several carpenters are going to the harbour on Edward's branch line.

"Your driver will need to ask the stationmaster where the engineers are, and your to wait if they are delayed," the shed master said.

Gordon and his driver agreed. The shunter coupled Gordon to his four coaches, two vans five empty wagons and brake-van, then the guard blew his whistle and the train was on the way.

As they raced along, Gordon began to wonder what the men would look like. Meanwhile, at Maron Station, Duck was sitting "wrong road" to allow Gordon access to the signal box at Knapford Junction. He was feeling rather uncomfortable, seeing as signalmen were not always reliable..

This, however, added to the confusion when Bertie arrived. The stationmaster, a trainee, was unfamiliar with the change of plans and sent the engineers onto Duck's train and told the carpenters to wait for Gordon's service to Brendam.

"That isn't right!" Duck called to the stationmaster. "I'M going to Brendam! Gordon's taking the engineers to mend the points!"

The stationmaster, however, ignored Duck's protests and when Gordon arrived, the men were making their way to the train when the driver stopped them.

"Excuse me," he said. "Are you the engineers that we're expecting?"

"No, we're the carpenters on our way to Brendam by your service," one said. "Now, we must catch out boat or we'll be delayed for a very important contract abroad."

The driver and guard explained, in vain, that Gordon's service was for the engineers that were going to mend the points. However, they boarded.

"I'll take the engineers onward," Duck said. "Leave your wagons and I'll handle it. You take them as far as Edward's station, where BoCo will take them on their journey to the boat."

The signalman at Maron arranged with Wellsworth Stationmaster and Control the proposed plan. Duck set off first, bound to make lost time. Gordon followed ten minutes later, and after being switched over, attacked the climb of his own hill. Once at the top, Gordon's driver eased him off and Gordon coasted slowly down his hill and into Wellsworth, where BoCo was waiting.

Gordon was taken off and set into Siding, then BoCo was placed in front of the train and carried them onward. No sooner was the rear coach out of sight, the station master came to see Gordon.

"There's a small works train in the siding," he said to the bright blue Pacific. "There are two vans with barriers loaded in them, a four plank wagon with some crates of supplies, a small crane and a search light wagon. This is going to take a lot longer than expected. You're the fastest engine here and can make up for lost time."

Gordon beamed. Soon, Timothy arranged the wagons while Gordon was moved to the platform. Once the train was arranged, Timothy brought the wagons over to Gordon. A workman coupled Gordon to the train while another uncoupled Timothy.

Gordon found it hard to start the train, but with Timothy's help, he got it going. Timothy went back to shunting China Clay wagons. Soon, Gordon arrived with the needed supplies. Duck was waiting and so was Ferdinand, who was being used to help shunt the wagons around. Duck was waiting to take the broken parts to the scrap yards where Reg works.

It took the engineers a long time, but they soon had a load of scrap. Just as Duck was getting ready to couple to the wagons, Gordon backed onto the scrap wagons.

"You take the engineers back to Brendam so they can catch their boat, I'll take the scrap load to make up for the chaos at Maron," Gordon said.

Duck was surprised, but agreed to the plan. Gordon was sent on his journey with the heavy scrap wagons. At Wellsworth, Donald was waiting with Gordon's Mid-day express, as Gordon steamed through.

"Weel, I never," the Caledonian puffed. "Gordon taking trucks? Tis is a change fer the books."

Gordon ignored him and huffed on. Soon, he reached the scrap yards. Norman, who was working there, took the scrap laden wagons away and moved along side Gordon.

"A special load is needed at the junction. It's a flatbed of girders, a load of coal that was accidentally delivered here, two four plank wagons full of pipes and some empty wagons for the quarry," the diesel said.

Gordon agreed and Norman arranged the wagons. Once the little diesel had the train ready, he shunted the wagons up to Gordon and the big blue engine puffed away. For the rest of the day, Gordon was kept busy with odd jobs to "make up" for the mishap at Maron earlier that day.

When Gordon returned to the sheds for the night, there stood the Fat Controller.

"I've heard about everything," the Fat Controller said.

"I'm sorry about earlier, sir," Gordon replied. "Duck had to take my men and I had to take the carpenters, so I did extra work to make it up to you and…"

"That'll do, Gordon," the Fat Controller chuckled. "I know all about that. I'm glad that the signals and points at the junction are working. I congratulate you on using what resources were available."

As a reward, Gordon and Duck were sent for fresh coats of paint. When the two engines returned, they looked even smarter than before. As for the stationmaster at Maron, he got a warning about following orders from the Fat Controller.

"We're human after all, so I expect you'll learn from your mistakes," he said to the stationmaster.

I don't think he'll make the same mistake again, don't you?


	2. Scrapyard Escapades

Scrap yard Escapades

The scrap yard at Kellsthorpe, where Reg works is the busiest scrap yard to be found. Sidney and Gator, who are stabled here, can be found shifting wagons of bulky scrap metal that is to be broken down before being taken to the Smelter's Yard at Ballahoo. The wagons that work at the scrap yard are the second worst wagons on the railway.

They believe that without them, that scrap yard would shut down and that they'd be used for the insignificant loads, like coal and sand. If the wagons have to be shunted on a train of other wagons, the scrap wagons make as much trouble as possible.

"How those two put up with them is a miracle I'll never understand," James grunted one morning.

He was waiting at the Big Station for Stafford to bring his express fitted goods train. Gordon was waiting with the local train.

"It's probably due to them being trained to handle these wagons under the supervision of Edward," the large pacific Replied.

James muttered in consent of the idea. Soon, Stafford arrived with the wagons and James took his place at the front of the train when Stafford moved off.

Meanwhile, at the scrap yard, the manager was showing Sidney and Gator a new wagon he had purchased.

"It's a corrugated side wagon, used to transport pipes," he said. "If all goes well, I'll get some more. It's supposed to make transport of pipes simpler."

The wagon was not impressed and when the manager walked away, she started in on how dirty the two engines looked.

"Such grimy fools," she snorted. "On the Other Railway, the engines shine, no matter the job."

"We don't mind," Sidney put in, as he moved forward to shunt some empty wagons that were needed back at the works. "It shows that we're really useful."

"Indeed," Gator added as he moved forward to collect the wagon. "Also, how many railfans come to see clean and spotless diesels?"

"Um…er…erm…uhm…three?" she stammered.

"We see three to four hundred at any given time," Gator said. "In the summer, that number triples, because they want to see the grimy engines doing their respective duties that they held back in the 1920's and thirties."

The wagon was speechless! That was sure a lot of railfans. As she watched Gator and Sidney move around the yard, she made note of all the sidings and the points arrangement.

While she did that, Sidney was moving the wagons that were used for the "Scrap" to the outgoing road, so that way they'd get back to the works, where they were needed. The "Scrap" was made up of some of the oldest and rudest wagons on the railway. BoCo had left one of their number for scrap back in 1991. They haven't forgotten that and they don't ever mess with BoCo.

However, while the wagons didn't mess with BoCo, they decided to mess with the other engines. As Sidney shunted the wagons into the outgoing road, they slipped their brakes on, "accidentally on purpose". The little diesel struggled to shunt the wagons, which caused the wagons to laugh at Sidney.

Gator was moving wagons of freshly cut up scrap into a siding to go to Ballahoo Smelter's yard. When he finished, he went off to help shift the difficult wagons. However, the wagons were going to be worse to him than he expected. As Gator moved to collect the wagons, an oil can that was overhanging one of the wagons waiting to be unloaded had been steadily dripping oil onto the rails without anyone knowing that was happening.

Gator reached the beginning of the oily point and his driver applied the brakes, but Gator just slid helplessly along the oily rails. Sitting on the cross track were the wagons for the "Scrap", who were refusing to move for Sidney.

"Horrors!" cried Gator.

The trucks looked up to see Gator right on top of them. Before Sidney could move them, the large chain drive steam motor locomotive crushed the two wagons resting on the cross track. Some of the wood from the wagons got underneath Gator and lifted him off the rails and he came to a stop in the grass and soil.

"Well, this is most undignified," the two tone green engine huffed.

"At least it's better than connecting with another train on the mainline old boy," his driver soothed.

Sidney's driver ran over to see if Gator's crew were okay while Sidney's Secondman ran to the yard manager's office, where he got the yard manager to call for help. Soon, Molly arrived with the breakdown train. Workmen were sent out to sand the rails to prevent any more accidents.

"A trick we picked up from Porter," said a workman.

The two wagons that were destroyed were placed on flatbeds and the flatbeds were moved to the cutting siding, where they would be properly chopped up.

"Well, that's an experience that I don't want repeated," Gator thought. Molly's driver fit a long cable to her front, then attached the cable to Gator's rear coupling. Struggling hard, Molly pulled Gator onto the rails and shunted him to the works. Sidney cleaned up the rest of the mess and soon, Henry arrived to collect the breakdown train.

Once the cranes were taken away and the mess was cleaned up, Sidney was resting in the sheds at the scrap yard when the manager came to see him.

"Gator will be out for some time," he said to the shunting diesel. "We're going to try and get a new engine to assist you here. Diesel, 'Arry and Bert are unavailable due to them working in the smelters yard at Ballahoo, Paxton working at the Blue Mountain Quarry and so on."

"It's understandable," Sidney replied.

The blue diesel drifted off to sleep, thinking of the new engine that the scrap yard might be getting.


	3. Fish out of Luck

Fish Out of Luck

The one train that many of the engines didn't like pulling was the Flying Kipper. Henry and Arthur often had to double head the long and heavy fish train. They didn't mind, but James constantly complained about it, stating that "you can't get the smell off your tender."

"The only thing we'd have to worry about," Arthur said, cheekily. "Is you needing a bootlace."

James glared at the LMS Maroon Tank as he scampered out of the yard. The L&YR 27 huffed off to collect his coaches. He was still remembering the other times he took the Flying Kipper.

When Henry needed an overhaul, he had to take the train and ended up being held up by fish oil. The second time was when he had chickened out of pulling the train to win a wager with Henry and he was forced to pull the train after being found out by the Fat Controller, only to be taunted by the Troublesome Trucks about being "Scared of the Smelly Fish" and in the process of giving them a hard banging only to be covered in fish.

As James arrived to collect his stopping service, he noticed the Fat Controller talking to Henry. When he finished, the Fat Controller made his way over to James.

"Henry has to take a heavy load of scrap to the scrap yards tonight and has to bring back some new rails for track maintenance trains tomorrow, so I need you to take the Flying Kipper tonight," The Fat Controller said. "You'll be working with Arthur and Gator tonight as there is a double extra load tonight."

James agreed, but he was not happy about it. As the Fat Controller headed into his office, the red engine began complaining.

"Stow it," his driver snapped. "Or do you want to be stuck shunting until the Fat Controller decides that you've learned your lesson?"

James shut up at that and went about his duties. He wasn't looking forward to his job that night. When it was Five o Clock, James huffed down to the harbour, where Gator and Arthur were waiting on the point.

Porter and Salty were busily shunting wagons onto the tail end of the heavy train. Gator was half awake, but Arthur was overly excited.

"Calm down old boy," the large tank engine's driver said.

Arthur did so, but decided to put every ounce of enthusiasm into helping move the heavy train. Once the bright red engine was coupled to the train, the guard gave them the "Off".

"Right away mate," James's Driver called back.

With two short blasts on the whistle, the heavy train got under way. It seemed easier than ever, but they had forgotten that there was no banker at Wellsworth.

"Bother," James's driver groaned. "We're going to have to do some rearranging to give the train a banker at Wellsworth."

This was something that would make the train late, but they didn't have a choice in the matter.

At Wellsworth, the train was stopped and James was uncoupled. He was wondering why he was being uncoupled and run passed the train. He soon got his answer when he was coupled to the back of the heavy fish train.

"Why do I have to bank this train?" James asked his crew.

"You're the strongest of the three engines on the point of the train," his driver replied.

James grumbled. He hated banking duties and detested it greatly. He had banked Gordon's express service to Barrow once, only to end up out of steam and left to coast back into the banker's siding at Wellsworth.

Once all the preparations were completed, the guard blew his whistle and the train started off. As the train began to attack the climb, Arthur and Gator were snorting and panting up the hill with James huffing, puffing and snorting on the brake-van's rear buffer beam.

The hill and weight of the train took it's toll on the three engines. The three engines firemen were smothering the fire with coal faster than anything. As they crested the hill, the weight of the train shifted.

The engines' crews jammed the brakes hard on, but the weight and the hill's steepness meant that the three engines had a hard time controlling the heavy train and were rocketing down the hill. When they reached the bottom of the hill, they managed to slow the train, but not enough.

The night signalman had set the points to the siding at Maron, mainly because of Neville having to do some shunting. A couple of trucks had run hot boxes and they had to be removed. Once the shunting was finished and Neville had arranged the train, the signalman had dozed off, forgetting about the Flying Kipper.

The train was coming in to hot. Arthur felt his wheels swerve violently over the points and could see the buffers at the end of the siding. Before anyone could say or do anything, Arthur struck the buffers, smashing them to pieces and heading off the line and into a couple of coal bunkers. The sudden stop came as a surprise to James, who was still trying to stop the heavy train

The fish vans at the rear were smashed to pieces and fish flew everywhere. James groaned as some fish landed on him.

Arthur and Gator's crews jumped clear and ran to the signal box to telephone for help. Within the hour, cranes were on hand to help clear up the mess. Luckily, the Fat Controller had been away to handle some matters for a friend.

However, Derek and Molly, who were sent to help clean up the mess, were enjoying themselves.

"I guess James was the one who was fish out of luck," Molly giggled.

James growled. He knew that the other engines wouldn't let him forget this in a hurry.


	4. Slip Trap

Slip trap

On the approach to Crovan's Gate from Tidmouth, there are passing loops on the "up" and "down" lines. The loops were added to make it so trains could pass, if there was an unscheduled train coming from Tidmouth or from Barrow. The loops have trap points, to prevent trains waiting in the loop from joining the main line.

The trap points are interlocked with the signals protecting the loops, so when the signal is at "Danger" the trap points are set to derail the train. When the signal is set to "proceed" then the trap points are set to allow the train in loop to join the main line. James and Connor couldn't understand why the loops had trap points.

"No crew would be that stupid," James snorted.

"Agreed," Connor added.

Edward sighed.

"Do you remember the incident on the Great Central Railway?" he asked.

"Which one?" James demanded.

"The one on April the 27th, where a Standard 2 was waiting in the loop. The driver started against the Danger signal and the trap points caught the engine and derailed it before it joined the main line and collided with a passenger train," Edward explained.

Connor sniggered and James burst out laughing. Edward sighed.

"They'll get it," he muttered.

The next day, James was taken to the spare sheds at Tidmouth, which were the first sheds on the line. They were used when the main sheds were either full or there was a problem. That day, the sheds had been full up and James was forced to sleep in the spares. The next morning, James awoke to a firelighter and his fireman preparing his fire.

"Morning James," he said. "Bad news; your driver is ill, the turntable for these sheds are jammed and the relief is late."

James groaned.

"I have to take a passenger train backwards," he moaned.

"Not a passenger train," said his fireman. "A special postal train."

James was not impressed. He believed that postal trains were for the little engines. Also, he didn't like the idea of running backwards, but there was nothing he could do.

When the relief arrived, he looked James up and down.

"Stuck on a kettle," he snapped.

James was now ready to retort. The driver got in, and after the fire was burning nicely, the driver roughly opened the regulator and removed the brake, forcing James to jerk forward. The driver continued and when they arrived at the platform, where twelve postal carriages waited, the driver stopped James too roughly and he bumped the postal carriages roughly.

"Watch it!" snapped one of the coaches.

"Sorry, " James whimpered.

Sidney, who was shunting the Big Station, noticed that James was having a hard time. He soon heard James's driver saying how useless he was.

"That's not good," the class 08 thought.

When James left the station, the blue diesel asked his driver to tell the Fat Controller what he heard. The driver agreed. Meanwhile, James's driver was being too headstrong and ignoring the Fireman's warnings. He ran through red a red signal protecting Henry's local train at the Junction. The Signalman changed the points and belled ahead warning Wellsworth box that James was running wrong road.

Once all had the proper codes had been passed, the signalman telephoned control to report that James was running danger signals. Control said to wait developments.

James was now concerned.

"Driver! Stop! There are Danger signals for a reason!" he called.

"Shut it!" came the reply.

James began to wonder if his driver really was qualified. At the loop, James was diverted to allow a goods train to over take. The fireman stopped James and reported to the box. When the fireman had reached the box, the driver started James against the danger signal. The trap points were set to derail James.

As James passed the danger signal, he felt his tender coming off the rails. Soon, he came off the rails and was stopped by the brickwork of the road bridge over railway lines entering Crovan's Gate Station.

The signalman called for help. Caitlin passed with her goods train and sighed. After an hour of waiting, BoCo brought up the Breakdown train and the Fat Controller.

"Well, driver," snarled the Fat Controller. "What do you have to say to this fiasco?"

The driver began to stammer and point at James. The fireman came up and explained everything to the Fat Controller. All the driver could do was hang his head in shame.

"I'll deal with you later," the Fat Controller snarled.

He then turned to the workmen.

"What's the diagnosis of the accident?" he asked.

"James's tender is damaged and the brickwork is damaged. If he is moved, then the road might lean and break. Right now, we need supports to brace the road. Once we move James; we are going to need gravel, tar, bricks, concrete, timber, steel and iron to mend this," a workman said.

"How long will it take?" the Fat Controller asked.

"Possibly seven months, maybe three years to repair. James will be in the shops for at least four years," said the workman.

The Fat Controller sighed. One idiot screwed all his plans up. As for the driver, he was demoted to cleaner and had to clean engines until the Fat Controller could trust him. I doubt he'll try this again, don't you?


	5. Motivation

Motivation

The Earl was in the middle of a power crunch. Heavy goods had to be brought to the castle and empties had to be taken away. The Fat Controller was trying hard to spare an engine for such duties, but no good. With James out of commission due to his accident with a rough and unready driver.

To make matters worse, Caitlin was going in for an overhaul, leaving Connor with twice as many passengers. This was not a good sign at all.

As the Earl sat in his office, he looked through several books and pictures of steam and diesel locomotives. Suddenly, his eye fell to an engine he has seen many times-The LMS Black Five. He began to think of where he saw the Black Five on Sodor, before it came to him-Henry!

"Why didn't I think of that! Black Fives! They're brilliant mixed traffic engines!" he cried out in joy.

He attacked the problem of extra motive power for trains from the mainland and came across a powerful looking American Diesel, painted bright yellow and with the word "Chessie" painted on the side, as well as a blue circle with the inside of the circle cut to look like a sleeping kitten.

"That's perfect!" he squeaked with joy.

Continuing his relentless search for motive power, he soon came across a sentinel steam shunter and a Peckett.

"Yard shunters, check," the Earl said.

Once he had the list organised, he spent the rest of the day making phone calls and making arrangements. Once he hung up, he could hardly wait. Relief at last. The days turned into months. It was the second week in November when the Earl came out to see the Castle Yards full of smoke and steam.

He hurried out to see the engines that he ordered lined up. Six Black fives, the Peckett, The Sentinel, and the American Diesel.

"Ah, it is good to see you," he said.

"It is an honor in return," one of the Black Five's said.

"What are your names?" he asked.

"Todd, sir," the Black Five furthest from the castle yard platform said.

"Thames," the Black five next to Todd replied.

"Fox," the Black five next to Thames replied. 

"Dylan," the Black five next to Fox replied. 

"Lilly," the Black five next to Dylan replied. 

"Kelsey," the Black five next to Lilly replied.

"Remus," the Peckett replied

"Xander," the Sentinel replied.

"Chessie, Sir," the American diesel replied.

"Excellent," said the Earl. "Do you all know your duties?"

"Not really," Xander said.

"You, Remus, Todd, Thames, Fox, Dylan, Kelsey and Lilly are going to be stabled here. The Black Fives are going to be handling the heavy goods trains, you and Remus are to handle the shunting around the yard, Chessie is to handle Caitlin's work while she's in for an overhaul, and he's going to stay with Connor and Caitlin, handling the goods trains that come from the mainland," the Earl said.

The engines agreed and after Connor came and lead Chessie to Barrow in Furness, the Earl said that supply trains were waiting.

"I'm constructing a shed for you all," he said. "That includes my other two engines, Millie and Stephen."

"Will we meet them and the other engines here?" Remus asked.

"All in due time," the Earl replied.

The engines were excited and their chance to meet the other engines came soon. But I mustn't tell you any more or I shall spoil the next story.


	6. Outfoxed

Out Foxed

Fox was settling in with the new engines at the Earl's estate. She had taken a liking to Stephen and had befriended Millie. She got on well with the engines of the North Western Railway, but she had trouble with the trucks. The other engines that the Earl bought were having the same troubles.

One cold morning, Fox was being fired so as to be ready for her first goods train. She groaned and stirred herself as the warmth of the fire spread through her boiler. The other engines were still sleeping.

When the boiler had reached the sufficient pressure, her crew arrived and she headed off to the goods yard. When she arrived, Neville had brought in several wagons full of bricks to be shunted onto a train of flatbed of lumber, cement wagons, vans full of tools and several coaches of workmen.

"Morning," Fox steamed.

"Morning," Neville replied. "Your train's ready. Take care, the trucks are being worse than ever."

Fox thanked him and was coupled to her wagons. When all was ready, the guard of her train waved his flag and boarded the brake-van. She started off with no problem and made good time to Edward's Station. It was there that problems began.

As she came into the platform, the starting signal was at Danger. Her driver brought the engine to a stop.

"Sorry about this," said the Stationmaster to her driver. "You're to be held until a late running goods passes. Then a special China Clay service to Barrow is to over take you going in the other direction. We're going to have to move you into the goods yard to keep the platforms clear. Your also to take some China Clay on your train to the Castle. Edward will bring the train up and from there, he'll shunt the rear two tank wagons onto your train."

Fox agreed to the plan and after the signalman was told and he made the proper protecting moves, Fox reversed to the yard entrance. Once clear of the points, Fox whistled 3 short blasts, paused then whistled 1 short blast, meaning "Up fast to sidings".

The signalman set the points and Fox crawled into the sidings. Once the brake-van was clear, the Stationmaster gave a hand signal to the signalman, who closed the points and cleared the signals, then accepted the late running goods train from Maron Box.

After the late running goods train passed, Edward arrived with the China Clay service. Once Edward had stopped the train, the Signalman took the protecting measures and Edward carried out the shunting. Once that was finished and Edward had taken off, Fox whistled to be let back onto the main line, two short blasts, pause then one short. The signalman acknowledged the whistle and after the large goods engine had reversed to the yard entrance points, he set them and she joined the main line.

After waiting to get the green signals, she was forty minutes late and pounding metal to make that time up. She had a reputation amongst the other LMS tender engines of being the "Timekeeper" because of it. She remembered the good times and remembered when she took the 15 Guinea Special on Sunday, August 11th, 1968; that she made a promise to keep her "Timekeeper" status.

The trucks had other plans and carried them out when the train reached the bottom of Gordon's Hill. The third goods van from the end began sparking madly. The guard signaled to Fox's Crew to stop and from there, one delay followed another. By the time Fox reached the castle, her forty minute delay became a two and a half hour delay.

The Earl was sympathetic, because he had heard stories about the trucks, but the other engines were giving her a load of teasing about being late. That night, with her crew, they formulated a plan to give the trucks what for. The next day, Fox collected a coal train for the castle. As she backed onto the wagons, her driver slowed her to a crawl.

When the trucks were unaware, her driver opened the regulator and she bumped them hard. All throughout the day, Fox gave the trucks a taste of their own medicine. At the end of the day, the trucks decided that it would be wise to not tick off Fox, as she was too dangerous to their plans.


	7. Haunted Henry

Haunted Henry

At Vicarstown, there is an abandon branch line. Up until it's untimely death in 1960, the line serviced a dairy farm, a paper mill, coal mine, refinery, a steelworks and scrap yard. The line was staffed by: a London Midland Scottish Railway 8F 2-8-0 tender engine, SDJR/LMS 7F 2-8-0 tender engine, LNER J78 0-6-0 Crane tank, LNER J92 crane tank, Southern Railway Z Class 0-8-0, Southern Railway Q1 0-6-0 tender engine, Great Western Railway 7200 2-8-2 tank engine and a Great Western Railway 5700 class pannier tank, British Railways Standard class 3 2-6-0 tender engine a British Railways Standard Class 4 2-6-4 Mixed Traffic Tank engine.

There were two engines built as experiments by the Southern Railway and Great Western Railway. One was built to the specifications of a Southern Railway Q1, except that the engine had the 4-6-4 wheel arrangement, and was called Q1x. The second engine was a Great Western Railway Cathedral Class 4-6-2. Both engines were built and being tested in 1935.

During the war, the line was pushed to it's limits and beyond. After the war ended, goods traffic on the line decreased when lorries came in. Buses took the passengers and final, deadly blow came on the 16th of July, 1960.

The line had been fitted with track circuit, which means that when a train is in section, an electrical current shorts through the trains metal wheels and changes the signals to danger. When there is no train in section, then there is no short, meaning that the signals are reading Line Clear.

In the early hours of July 16th, a signalman reported that there was a short outside of the tunnel just beyond the station before the top station. Both tunnel portals are protected by track circuit signals and with the short, they were both showing red. The first train, a passenger train ran passed the Danger Signal. The locomotive and it's crew weren't attentive and missed it. Only when the brakes were applied on the coaches, did they realise their mistake.

Meanwhile, at the box on the Vicarstown approach, a workman was looking at the track circuit's breaker box, to see where the short was. He had a screwdriver, and was going to use it to remove the faulty circuit. However, that never happened. As the man went to work, the signalman called to him, saying that head office wanted to have a word with him.

He set his screwdriver on the rails and ran to take the call. Nobody noticed that the signals were set to green. At the top station, a fuel train was waiting to depart. The passenger train, pulled by the Cathedral was sitting in the tunnel. The fuel train, being pulled by the Q1x, was getting the "Off". The drivers, firemen and guards would work for the last time.

The Cathedral was waiting in the tunnel and everyone was blissfully unaware of the fate that awaited them.

The Fuel train, which had five thousand tonnes of fuel, was accelerating through a "false off" and by the time the driver of the fuel train had seen the tail lamp, it was too late. There was an ear piercing screaming crash. An explosion followed, bringing with it the screams and cries of the injured and trapped.

When the wreck was cleared, the two engines involved and all the wagons and coaches that were mangled and blown to smithereens were taken to the scrap yards and melted down. During the whole crash and clean up, an owl was watching them.

The signal engineer could only cry when he realised he caused the accident by leaving his screwdriver on the rails. The engineer was so distraught that he became stressed and the stress mounted and eventually caused his heart to fail. The engines were sheeted and locked in the shed and the line was closed. Scrap merchants were meant to come and cut all the engines and rolling stock up, but they were busy cutting up other engines and rolling stock at scrap yards around the mainland.

Years went by until the Fat Controller decided to reopen the line and restore the engines. The line's top station terminated at a huge wooded lake. It was a huge tourist attraction. One morning, BoCo took a train of platelayers to mend the line and get it in working order.

The men started at the bay platforms, where trains from the branch line would meet up with the main line trains. Henry and Hank were bringing in supply trains. It wasn't the best job, but if Henry could be excused from his other duties to do this, then it pleased him.

One night, Henry was collecting some wagons from Wellsworth yard. Edward was shunting nearby when an owl hooted. Edward reversed and faced Henry.

"Be careful," Edward said. "They say that when an owl hoots, a whistle will sound followed by an explosion."

"Oh stow it, you senile old fool!" Henry roared. "I'm fed up with all of your rotten ghost stories. GHOSTS DON'T EXIST!"

With that, Henry stormed out of the yards. BoCo looked over at Edward. The old engine sighed and went about his shunting and preparing for a night goods to Brendam bay.

Henry stormed down the mainline, his anger affecting his judgment.

"That Edward, he's been soft in the boiler since 1922. Ghosts, pah!" he snorted.

Henry's driver was concerned, but said nothing as they reached Vicarstown and were switched onto the line that was being restored. The rails up to the first station had been restored and Henry had brought the supplies to restore the line up to the second station, as well as add a couple of loops between the two stations and two waiting sidings. Henry simmered indignantly while the men sorted the supplies.

"What's bitten you?" his driver asked.

"Edward," Henry retorted.

"You mean his ghost stories?" quizzed the fireman.

"Yes!" snapped Henry.

"Well, the ghostly legend on this line is actually true. Many of my ancestors have seen the specters," Henry's driver told him.

Henry's left eye twitched. His driver also believed in this ghost malarkey as well? Was everyone going mad? If he was under his own power, then he'd leave his crew alone. The driver could see the look on his engine's face and began laughing heartily.

"You remind me of a few anime shows I watched as a kid, where the main characters would twitch their eyes when they were confronted with something strange," he said.

Henry snorted and closed his eyes. The work seemed to take forever, but he was soon able to reverse to Vicarstown and steam home. As he puffed homeward, Caitlin roared passed with a passenger train to Barrow, where her shed was located.

When Henry reached Tidmouth, he shunted his wagons into the wagon and carriage shed, then backed into the empty sheds.

"Peace at last," the green engine sighed and drifted off.

The next morning, Henry was taking a train of workmen and tools up to restore the station where the new rails had been laid. He was able to rest and forget the ghost stories. When he was woken again, the brig green engine was being shunted back to Vicarstown.

"What's going on?" he asked his driver.

"Your to take a train of sleepers, ballast and rails to repair the rails from where the repaired rails ended in at the first station up through the second station, tunnel, third station and the top station. You'll be staying here tonight," his driver replied.

"Great," the green engine growled. Tonight was not going to be fun at all.

When he arrived at Vicarstown, the train had been marshaled and waiting for him. Once he was coupled to it and steamed away. When he returned, the sun had completely disappeared and a full moon took it's place. The driver looked up and sighed, in defeat.

"No stars, so I can't stargaze."

Henry kept his eyes on the rails. When he arrived, the workmen began to unload the rails and sleepers. Other workmen began to remove used ballast and rusted rails. It seemed to take forever, but soon Henry reached the tunnel. A creepy, almost sinister feeling fell over the big green Black 5.

Just as Henry began to nod off to sleep, he noticed a strange green locomotive. He thought it looked like a Great Western King or a Castle or even a Hall. The engine was dozing in the tunnel when a screaming whistle sounded and the engine jolted forward. Suddenly, flames leapt forward and before Henry could say anything, a pale looking man ran forward.

Henry let out a terrified scream and closed his eyes tightly. His driver, fireman and the workmen were cowering in the coach.

"That was…that was…get me out of here!" Henry wailed in terror.

His driver didn't agree and when the men got over their scare, they went back to work. However, as they went about it, they were wary of their surroundings, which made the work go by very slowly.

"This is agony," Henry thought.

Soon though, the men had the rails up to the station through the tunnel laid and Henry continued up through to the top station, where Henry ran round the train and was coupled to the rear of the train and went to sleep. When morning came, Henry reversed down the line with the empty wagons. He was so scared that he refused to work on the line for the rest of the restoration project. Hank took over his jobs and Henry went back to pulling heavy goods trains and passenger trains.

However, he was still haunted by what he saw. He wondered if his mind was slipping, but we know that what Henry saw was real.


End file.
